Double Penetration

Hiding from Confrontation

Ace:

Lunch.

The one hour of the day all the kids tried to jam themselves into one room. The cafeteria had a capacity that was definitely lower than the number of students that went there, so when you walked in and it was already full, you got slapped in the face with a wall of stuffy heat from all the warm bodies stuffed inside the room.

Our group sat at the back of the room in a corner we'd claimed with our growing friend group. Noah was talking and gesturing wildly with his hands and everyone else looked like they were mentally praying to Selene to end their suffering. I had no doubt he was discussing the most recent storyline in his vampire, alien, sorcerer game. Except now, there were werewolves in it. 

Moon Goddess, spare me….

I made it to the table, putting my hand on Noah's shoulder to keep him from moving as I sat down beside him. He stopped talking long enough to look at me weird, since I never really sat next to him. I took the chance to speak.

"I think that's enough of the video games, buddy. Everyone else looks like they wanna run. Did you know there's a gaming club that meets on Tuesday after school? You should try it out, it'd be a good fit for you."

"Really?!" Noah suddenly had more energy than I'd ever seen from him. "Thanks, I'm totally gonna look into that!!" He made to get up and Evan watched in amusement all the way up until Noah got off the bench. Evan reached out and grabbed his brother's sweater, pulling him back down to the bench. 

Noah looked at his brother in question. Evan rolled his eyes. "Maybe do that after you finish your food, doofus." 

I nodded. We discussed the things we did over the weekend. Cole recounted the phone mishap at the lake(to Evan's endless amusement), Mark had apparently gone over to Evan and Noah's apartment and had a movie marathon with Noah. Evan claimed he did nothing in particular, which was odd considering his best friend was at his house with his brother. Then I remembered what happened this morning in math. 

"Evan, where was your sketchbook this morning in class?" He looked as though I had just stepped on his foot. His cheeks oinked and he pushed the food on his tray around. Even more suspicious….

"Uh….I forgot it at my house this morning. I was in a hurry and left it on my desk in my room."

It wasn't like him to forget things, even if he was in a rush. He always came to school with everything he needed. If he ever did forget, there was always another one in his locker. I'd seen them a few times when I talked to him by his locker. He had two or three at least, so his answer didn't make much sense to me.

"You didn't have one in your locker?"

"No, I took them all home on Friday to sort them. That's how I know they're all on my desk." He chewed his food with a sour expression.

I wanted to press the matter further, knowing full well there was something up with him. But I didn't. We were finally on good terms, I didn't want to risk taking any steps backward with him. So I dropped the subject and let someone else change the topic.

§~•~§~•~§

Football practice wasn't all that interesting, we stretched and did about 10 laps around the field. After that we did a scrimmage, it was first-line against bench players. 

We were on break for halftime and I noticed Evan passing the field on his way home. He looked over, our eyes met, and I could literally hear his heartbeat pick up as he turned away and continued walking(supernatural hearing and all that).

The game continued not long after and it went about the way the first half did. By the end of it, we were up on the second-line by eleven points (three touchdowns and two field goals). Coach gave us his "good practice'' line then we headed to the locker room. Once I'd rinsed off in the showers and got dressed in my regular clothes, I went to my car and drove home. 

Maybe tomorrow will be less boring….